HOW TO USE THE DICTIONARY
To look up an entry in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, use the search window above. For best results, after typing in the word, click on the “Search” button instead of using the “enter” key.
Some compound words (like bus rapid transit, dog whistle, or identity theft) don’t appear on the drop-down list when you type them in the search bar. For best results with compound words, place a quotation mark before the compound word in the search window.
THE USAGE PANEL
The Usage Panel is a group of nearly 200 prominent scholars, creative writers, journalists, diplomats, and others in occupations requiring mastery of language. Annual surveys have gauged the acceptability of particular usages and grammatical constructions.
AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY APP
The new American Heritage Dictionary app is now available for iOS and Android.
THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY BLOG
The articles in our blog examine new words, revised definitions, interesting images from the fifth edition, discussions of usage, and more.
INTERESTED IN DICTIONARIES?
Check out the Dictionary Society of North America at http://www.dictionarysociety.com
ADD
Share:
Tweet abbr. attention deficit disorder |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
v. add·ed, add·ing, adds v.tr. 1. To join or combine (numbers) through addition: If you add 5 and 10 and 17, the result is 32. If you add 6 to 8, you get 14. 2. To join or unite so as to increase in size, quantity, quality, or scope: added 12 inches to the deck; flowers that added beauty to the dinner table. 3. To say or write further. v.intr. Phrasal Verb: 1. To find a sum in arithmetic. 2. a. To constitute an addition: an exploit that will add to her reputation. b. To create or make an addition: gradually added to my meager savings. add up Idiom: 1. To be reasonable, plausible, or consistent; make sense: The witness's testimony simply did not add up. 2. To amount to an expected total: a bill that didn't add up. 3. To formulate an opinion of: added up the other competitors in one glance. add up to To constitute; amount to: The revisions added up to a lot of work. [Middle English adden, from Latin addere : ad-, ad- + dare, to give; see dō- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] adda·ble, addi·ble adj. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
